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Name: Celeste Delia Cantwell Monroe
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Birth date: Summerday, 9:6
Occupation(s): Ship's Captain, Mercenary, Bounty Hunter, Thief, Smuggler ... whatever pays the bills. She'll even take an honest job if it sounds interesting
Clothing: Celeste has curves and knows how to emphasize them when it suits her purpose, but on board her ship, she dresses for duty, wearing a loose-fitting linen shirt, heavy cotton trews and a leather vest equipped with pockets both visible and hidden, in which she stows all manner of items. She has a fondness for bright colors, expressed in bandannas tied about her upper arms and above her knees, which serve the added purpose of distracting the eyes of her opponents in a fight. She prefers bare feet on deck (a childhood habit she refuses to give up, despite the loss of her toe), a sturdy set of boots or sandals for walking on land and a pair of soft-soled slippers for second-story work.
Specialization: N/A
Weapons & Armor - Paired red steel daggers are her weapons of choice; she also carries two braces of throwing knives and has a lightweight ash crossbow, the bolts tipped with poison for special occasions. When combat seems likely, she wears a set of inscribed leather armor enchanted with a novice Tempest rune, a gift from her late husband.
Non-Combat Skills
Master: Seamanship, Legerdemain
Expert: Stealth, Lock Picking
Intermediate: Bargaining, Contacts, Drinking, Evaluation, Gambling, Leadership, Navigation, Swimming, Traps
Novice: Poison Lore
Languages: She is fluent in Common, Antivan and Rivaini (spoken and written), proficient in Qunlat (more spoken than written), and can deliver insults in Orlesian and Tevene.
Combat Skills
Expert - Dual weapon (Daggers), Unarmed
Intermediate - Crossbows
To strangers, she appears open, garrulous and irreverent, but whenever she is chatting someone up, she is also simultaneously sizing them up: as a potential customer, opponent or mark. She will quite deliberately make provoking remarks just to see the response she gets, and 'prigs' who take offense are likely to be needled until they flare up or flee, then find their underwear drawer has been sprinkled with itching powder, or greased nugs released in their drawing room. 'Good sports' who bear up under her teasing are generally granted an early reprieve, while those 'cheeky buggers' who give as well as they get delight her, though they also frequently fire a spirit of competition that can lead to lively times.
She is staunchly loyal to friends and crew, and while having little use for the laws of men, she has her own code that she lives by. Assassinations and slavery are two activities in which she will not engage, and once she takes a job, she will not double-cross a client (It should be noted that on occasion she has taken on a client with the express purpose of double-crossing them, either as part of a job for a third party or an elaborate practical joke on behalf of the Friends of Red Jenny. She has also accepted pay for killing some bastard who needed killing. These are totally separate matters, to her way of thinking.). It should also be noted that if a client attempts to double-cross her, she doesn't get mad; she gets even ... and then some.
She steals as instinctively as most people draw breath, trading off her booty (usually at a tidy profit) at the nearest marketplace. The thefts and the bargaining are the challenges that she relishes; the coin is just a handy way of keeping score, and she's as likely to deposit her profits in a beggar's cup or buy drinks for an entire tavern as she is to keep it - as long as her overall cash situation is good and her crew has been paid.
When she was twelve, she convinced her father that she should be taught to fight, pointing out the risk of encountering pirates on their sea voyages, and her natural agility translated well into fighting with paired daggers. Her illicit acquisitions continued, and her exasperated father began to threaten to send her to the Chantry or – worse – arrange a 'good' marriage for her to make her someone else's problem.
At the age of sixteen, she caught the eye of Daniel Monroe, captain of the Wicked Grace: a mercenary and smuggler hired by Reginald to slip shipments of expensive Antivan brandy past customs in Orlais and the Free Marches. Drawn to the free-spirited and attractive young woman, Monroe left the last load of booze on the docks and took a very willing Celeste instead. Reginald publicly bemoaned the loss of his daughter, breathed a private sigh of relief and turned his attention back to his business.
Celeste, in the meanwhile, found herself on a grand adventure. In addition to his seagoing trade, Daniel was also a member of the Friends of Red Jenny, with contacts in numerous ports, and Celeste found the mischief perpetrated by the group entirely to her tastes. Not content to simply serve as her lover's bedwarmer, she declared that she would earn a place on his crew, then delighted him by doing just that, learning what little she had not already absorbed about sailing and fighting, then applying it and working her way up to Second Mate (it being all but impossible to displace Gideon from his position).
Her romance with the captain fifteen years her senior was as unconventional as the rest of her life had been, but suited them both perfectly, and their partnership was both profitable and satisfying. Though never formally wed, Celeste took Daniel's name as her own. During the Blight, they turned a tidy profit transporting refugees away from Ferelden.
When Daniel was swept overboard during a savage winter storm on the Waking Sea in 32 Dragon, there were some on the crew of the Wicked Grace that muttered that they would never serve under a woman captain. Those few were put ashore at swordpoint at the next port of call, and while it took Celeste a few tries to find good replacements, in the two years since, she has assembled a loyal and experienced crew with an eclectic mix of talents. She remains an active member of the Friends of Red Jenny, a fact known only to her closest associates and select contacts in each of her ports of call. She misses Daniel, but has no regrets about their years together and knows that he would want her to continue to enjoy her life and their ship to the fullest.
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